military diplomas

[pvblivs cordvs]

Hi all,
I'm looking for material, both text and image (anything at all actually), concerning the ceremony and traditions surrounding the handing out of military diploma's.
You see quite a few of them in the museums and tucked in belts on tombstones but apparently very little else is known about these important items.
Anyone ever seen an image of a diploma being given.
I know the one drawing ( by Ron Embleton ) but wondered what he based it on.
Greets,
Cordvs / Wim.

[Tib. Gabinius]

Salve,
theres a good book about the diplomas, sadly its in german. You can find it under "Das Militärdiplom" written by Nicole Lambert, Jörg Scheuerbrandt.

Also some vendors offer a copy of it, e.g. http://www.roemer-mosaik-kelten-shop.de ... 8.33098084
(i hope this is allowed, its not ment as commercial )


Pictures of real you can find here:
http://www.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaete ... urg_18.jpg

http://www.mavors.org/img/Militaerdiplom_klein.gif

http://www.archaeologie-bayern.de/mitt/m093-2.htm

http://rswug.de/projekte/roemer/html/mogetissa.html

If no one with a better written english answer your question to the handing out i ll try to

[Praefectusclassis]

You might be disappointed Cordus, but there might well have been no ceremony of awarding the diplomas. The actual grant was given in Rome, by official decree of the Emperor (who would of course want to be seen as the grantor of this important privilege, not the local commander!). This grant was published at one of the temples on the forum. It is not certain, but presumed that copies were only made on request of the veteran, or the copies as we know them, in bronze, were only made on request. AFAIK there is nothing known about the actual discharge of (auxiliary) soldiers.

See:
- B.Pferdehirt, Die Rolle des Militärs für den sozialen Aufstieg in der römischen Kaiserzeit
- W.Eck, H.Wolff, Heer und Integrationspolitik

[L. Aufidius Pantera]

Pferdehirt is a good place to go to, but very German. Why not also try the bibliographies in the RMD volumes by Roxan? That would be a lot of work, but yield the most promising results...

Roxan, M.M. Roman Military Diplomas 1-4, published 1978,1984,1994,2003; Bulletin of the Inst. of Classical Studies, Supplement, London

Sorry to say, but I agree with Jasper - the only "ceremonial" bit seems to have been when the lists of names were put up on the Rostra in Rome, while the soldiers had to actually say that they wanted their diploma... indeed, there is some discussion (in Pferdehirt too, I think?) that there may have been diplomata not made from bronze as well. Of course, these are unlikely to have survived so the whole thing is a bit speculative...

[FlaviusCrispus]

Avete, amici--

Here's a link to a nice Praetorian diploma in our current mail bid auction. This one has been published in Roxan's RMD Vol. 3. It's actually two pieces, one fairly complete, and one fragmentary:

http://www.freemanandsear.com/mailbid.p ... otID=10269

Now, here's a question for all you diploma experts: Why is it that diplomas were awarded to auxiliary soldiers AND Praetorians, but apparently not to regular legionaries? It must have to do more than just the granting of citizenship, as Praetorians must certainly have been citizens in the first place (right?).

[Praefectusclassis]

It's all about the granting of special priviliges. Real priviliges to auxiliaries, honorary diplomas/privileges for praetorians. Legionaries apparently didn't.

[raeticus]

More on diplomas with many images by province and emperor under
[url:3qmeuljg]http://www.romancoins.info[/url]. More images are always welcome, let me know if you have any to donate.

Citizenship diploma ceremonies for Auxiliary and Fleet soldiers ?

While nobody knows to date if there were any ceremonies for their issue it may help to look at the impressive bureaucratic effort:

1) Commander of an auxiliary unit lists all those ready for retirement
2) sends list to governor of his province
3) governor's administration bundles all requests for that province
4) sends list to Rome
5) imperial office draws up constitution for that province to grant citizenship
6) bronze plate written up and placed publicly in Rome
7) individual bronze copies (diplomas) written for each veteran
8) copies checked, confirmed, and sealed by 7 witnesses
9) sent to the governor in the province (we cannot be sure, but more likely than sending it straight to the unit)
10) sent on to the unit commander
11) issued to the veterans

And we have published recently a diploma from a constitution issued for only two veterans, a centurio and a horse soldier ! But mostly we are talking of veterans from anywhere between 4 and 25 auxiliary units, depending on the specific need of that province. Sometimes more than one constitution issued for the province at the same date date is known (split for logistical reasons ?). And we know of several examples where more than one diploma for an individual unit survived. I recall up to 4 or 5.

How many diplomas would have been issued for a given unit ? Let us take a regular cohors, 500 men, each serving 25 years. That would be 20 veterans each year assuming yearly recruitment (which is not that likely, more likely they filled in larger batches) and no deaths (depends on period). Or 40 in a milliaria unit of 1000 men. And possibly many more for a praetorian fleet.

20 (or more) out of 500 seems a large enough number to have a little ceremony amongst year-long colleagues, to formally award this very important document. From the point of view of the officers / commander not the least to show the remaining soldiers how good behaviour was rewarded. And soldiers love ceremonies, don't they ? Most likely thus they had ceremonies within the given unit.

Did they have central ceremonies ie with the governor issuing diplomas to veterans of multiple units in a larger garrison or the provincial capital ? Possible, quite possible.

Did the emperor hold ceremonies ? Not likely, too far from the veterans in most instances.

Legionary soldiers will have had ceremonies too, when they got their financial or land grant (a citizenship diploma they did not need being Roman citizens already).


Salve,
Andreas

[Praefectusclassis]

7) individual bronze copies (diplomas) written for each veteran

Isn't there quite some discussion recently that perhaps not everybody got a bronze diploma, or as Christoph said, they may have gotten copies in other media?

[raeticus]

Jasper,

yes, is being discussed indeed. But what is the evidence ?

Within the ca. 50 - 310 AD period from which we have a continuous flow of surviving bronze diplomas, we know two periods, one during the Germanic invasions under Marcus Aurelius and then after Gallienus to the Tetrarchy, where not a single (bronze) diploma survived. Why ?
Eck, Macdonald, and I have speculated in a recent article that this could be due to bronze having been too costly in these periods of crisis, possibly combined with a high number of casualties due to war and plague. Thus the practice of diplomas would have continued, but on other perishable materials. We know ie of certain privileges to soldiers found in Egypt written on wood or papyrus. But wether these were official documents like a bronze diploma remains unclear.

Diplomas are - with the exception of the two periods I refer to above - known almost for every year, and for most provinces with larger numbers of units (survival of these documents is more likely in provinces with many units - we only see a small fraction of what has been issued back then).
Thus the hypothesis that the issue of diplomas is a regular process, every year and for all veterans is making a lot of sense.

One cannot rule out however that the veteran had to pay for their bronze diploma, and that not all veterans were willing or able to do so. But there is no indication at all that this may have been the case.

And considering the central importance of the army and the fact that this privilege was given after a lifetime of honorable service, I personally see no reason not to believe the emperor took care of the cost for bronze.

Andreas

[Matt Lukes]

The Exploratio website has a very nice collection of images of diplomae: [url:3iep9wi6]http://www.exploratio.org/image_database/diploma/index.htm[/url]

Matt

[raeticus]

And regarding the question about Praetorians by Dave Michaels:

Pretorians ? Don't think they had to be citizens when enlisting, certainly we know of many Germans serving as praetorians.

And anyway, the hypothesis as to why praetorians as well as auxiliary soldiers already Roman citizens (either by birth or after Caracalla's widening of the citizenship) would still benefit from a military diplomas is somewhat complex. (and actually we do not find auxiliary diplomas anymore after 203 AD, but even more praetorian ones).

If they married a Roman citizen girl, they certainly had no need for a diploma.

But Roman citizens originating out of foreign families, or living in a primarily foreign environment at the empire's borders, are likely to marry foreign non-citizen women. At least during the 1st and 2nd centuries before the wider impact of the citizenship grants to veterans created a sufficient supply of veteran's daughters with Roman citizenship available as partners even in the remotest limes areas.
Roman citizens could however not have a formal marriage with foreigners, and their children did not enjoy the full status of a Roman born.
While diplomas do not grant citizenship to these foreign women, they do give the marriage with one women full legal status (conubium), and grant the children out of this marriage citizenship and full rights to inherit from their father. Important to the veterans family !

The Roman legal system was obviously a very complex one, and diplomas are in the end legal documents.

Above does not answer the question why legionaries, despite being Roman citizens, might not have enjoyed a marriage with a pretty foreigner, and thus would have had use for a diploma. And most legions were also based at the borders with a lack of Roman citizen girls. The only legionary diplomas we know are from the Civil war of 68/69 AD for soldiers of Legio I and II adiutrix formed out of auxiliary non-citizen fleet soldiers, who needed to be "Romanized" quickly.

Andreas

[Alexandr K]

Hi,

As foreign born individuals, out of foreign families, or living in a primarily foreign environment they are likely to marry foreign non-citizen women.

Until the time of Marcus Aurelius cca 90% of all praetorians had their origin in Italy. And even then, at the time from Marcus Aurelius onwards to the reign of Septimius Severus, when this percentage decreased, the majority still came from Italy and the rest was recruited in the most romanized provinces. So I wouldn't say, they were living in a primarily foreign environment. Then the likelihood of marriage with foreign women would be considerably lower, and so would be the need for diplomas among praetorians. But these are just speculations. Who knows...?
Greetings
Alexandr

[raeticus]

The quote as to "foreign environment" is of course not for Praetorians but for auxiliary soldiers in the remote provinces who I discussed in that same paragraph.

Most Praetorian diplomas we know of are from after Septimius Severus / Caracalla and fall under the paradox that Roman citizenship had been widened, and that most free men living in the Roman empire should have already received citizenship. Why would they still want a diploma ? Honor ? For their foreign wives/kids ? Or were the Praetorians of that period we know of coming from outside the Roman borders ? No, most come from cities in the balkans, from inside the Roman empire. Hard to explain !

On the other hand we find no more auxiliary diplomas after Septimius Severus. If anyone would still want a diploma it would seem to be the auxiliar veterans with wives/kids potentially from outside the border they lived so closely to. But no.

And to add to the paradox we continue to find fleet diplomas (not living as closely to the borders nor as close to the emperor), and still no legionary diplomas.

There must be a reason for this we can only speculate about. Maybe we misunderstood the widening of the citizenship under Caracalla ?

A.

[Alexandr K]

Ach, sorry. I thought you are still talking about praetorians in that paragraph...
Alexandr

[raeticus]

Another interesting observation is that very few wives and no kids at all are specifically mentioned on auxiliary diplomas after the early 140s.

Soldiers are thought to have not had the right for an official marriage during their service, and mostly were enlisted when too young to be already fathers.

Auxiliary diplomas from Claudius to the early 140s still name the veterans wives and kids if they had any. Thus the inofficial families they must have had during their service were retrospectively legalized. Nice for the auxiliaries. Maybe not as nice for the legionaries for whom we do not know of a similiar privilege.

Anyway, Antoninus Pius did an end to that practice.

But, we still find (rarely) special formulas on some diplomas even beyond that date that list wives and kids. It seems that these were for officers (centurios or decurios) with families they had "registered" with the governor before they entered service. After their service they then got the privileges and were named on the diploma. There is by the way strong evidence that this privilege was not restricted to officers, but also offered to the common soldier. Not many cases though, most common soldiers will have been too young to fit into that special category.

And we know of at least one diploma where the Roman citizenship was also granted to the parents and siblings of the soldier (who still continued to serve to get his 25 years completed), but no wive and kids are mentioned - Eck & Pangerl, Chiron 33, 2003, 347ff

Takes a lawyer's brain to come up with this. And legal documents they were :lol:

A.